G.O.P. Gains Strength and Obama Gets Low Marks, Poll Finds  —  A New York Times/CBS News poll shows that President Obama's approval ratings are similar to those of President George W. Bush in 2006 when Democrats swept both houses of Congress in the midterm elections.

Cruz: Dempsey, Hagel sound like social workers  —  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Tuesday that the U.S. military should not play the role of “social workers” in Iraq.  —  Speaking on Fox News's “Hannity,” Cruz voiced his frustration with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey's responses …

Jewish group brands Biden's Shylock comment ‘offensive’  —  Yahoo News 16 hrs ago  —  Vice President Joe Biden drew fire from a prominent Jewish group on Tuesday after he described unscrupulous bankers who prey on servicemen and servicewomen deployed overseas as “Shylocks” — a term frequently condemned as an anti-Semitic caricature.

NRA goes big in key Senate, governor's races  —  The National Rifle Association has reserved $11.4 million for its initial fall advertising campaign and will begin airing its first TV commercials Wednesday in three Senate races crucial to determining which party controls the chamber next year.

Too bad it's almost certainly unconstitutional.  —  You are no doubt as excited as I am about the advent of Constitution Day, which explodes into being again Wednesday, Sept. 17, with its customary flurry of greeting cards, traffic-stopping parades, fraught and complicated holiday dinners with the family …

Benghazi Select Committee Holding 1st Open Hearing  —  The House Select Committee on Benghazi gets its public debut Wednesday, two years after militants in the eastern Libyan city killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and four months after Republicans launched their special investigation.

How The FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecast Model Works  —  The FiveThirtyEight Senate forecast model launched earlier this month.  Right now, it shows Republicans with about a 53 percent chance of picking up the Senate next year.  We owe you a lot more detail about how that forecast is calculated …

‘Django Unchained’ Actress — We Got the Pictures ... And It Looks Like Sex  —  The “Django Unchained” actress who cried racism against the LAPD ... claiming they harassed and hurt her because she was just making out with making out with her white boyfriend in a car — has some explaining to do …

ISIS and the Arab World  —  LONDON — An existential struggle is taking place in the Arab world today.  But is it ours or is it theirs?  Before we step up military action in Iraq and Syria, that's the question that needs answering.  —  What concerns me most about President Obama's decision …

How many young women can a school legally punish for dress code violations?  —  Singling out female students for humiliation and discipline because of their sex is a blatant violation of federal law  —  Do school administrators think they're more stubborn than teenage girls who are told what they can't wear to school?

Boehner: ‘I have a few knuckleheads in my conference’  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday said he has “a few knuckleheads” in his conference.  As a result, Boehner described his House majority as being a “paper majority.”  —  “On any given day, 16 of my members decide they're going to go this way …

Trust in Mass Media Returns to All-Time Low  —  Six-percentage-point drops in trust among Democrats and Republicans  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — After registering slightly higher trust last year, Americans' confidence in the media's ability to report “the news fully, accurately, and fairly” has returned to its previous all-time low of 40%.

The Disappearing “Undue Burden” Standard for Abortion Rights  —  Those words—"undue burden"—represent Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's most important triumph during her long and consequential tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Almost single-handedly, O'Connor rewrote abortion law.